How to Create a Shiny 3D Text Effect in Adobe Photoshop

3D text effects can be created in many different ways, but Photoshop's 3D tools and settings are a fun way to do it. This tutorial will show you how to play around with the material textures and settings, as well as the lighting, to create a shiny wrapped text effect. Let's get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial:

1. Create the Background and the Text

Step 1

Then, create the text in All Caps using the font Franks Regular, and set the Size to 280 pt.

Step 2

If you have more than one line of text, change the Leading value to 250, and change the Tracking to a value that you like. Here, the Tracking value of the second line of text is set to 100.

2. Create the Shape Layers

Step 1

Right-click the text layer and choose Convert to Shape. Duplicate the shape layer and rename the copy to Stroke.

Step 2

With the Stroke layer selected, pick the Direct Selection Tool.

In the Options bar, change the Fill to None, the Stroke Color to #e5bf25, its Size to 2, and click the Set shape stroke type icon to change its Align to Outside.

3. Create the 3D Layers

Step 1

Select each shape layer you have and go to 3D > New 3D Extrusion from Selected Path, to convert it into a 3D layer.

Step 2

Select both 3D layers and go to 3D > Merge 3D Layers.

Step 3

To access the 3D mesh settings and properties, you’ll need to open two panels: the 3D panel and the Properties panel (both found under the Window menu).

The 3D panel has all the components of the 3D scene, and when you click the name of any of those, you’ll be able to access its settings in the Properties panel. So make sure to always select the tab of the element you want to modify in the 3D panel before you change its settings in the Properties panel.

4. Adjust the Mesh Settings

Step 1

Select the text mesh tab in the 3D panel, and change its Extrusion Depth in the Properties panel to 70.

Step 2

Click the Cap icon at the top of the Properties panel, and then change the Bevel Width to 2%, the Contour to Cone, and the Inflate Strength to 10.

Step 3

Select the Stroke mesh tab and change its Extrusion Depth to 35.

5. Create the Front Inflation Material Texture

Step 1

Select the text's Front Inflation Material tab, and then click the Diffuse texture icon in the Properties panel, and choose Edit Texture.

Step 2

This will open a file with the shape layer used to create the 3D mesh.

Change the shape layer's Fill color to #61129d.

Step 3

Pick the Rectangle Tool, and then create a thin (a Height value of 15 px) horizontal rectangle across the top of the text. Fill the rectangle with the color #e5bf25, then duplicate it.

Step 4

Press the Command-T keys to enter Free Transform Mode, and drag the copy rectangle a bit downwards, depending on how much space you want to leave between the stripes.

Hit the Return key to accept the changes.

Step 5

Now press the Option-Command-Shift-T keys a couple of times, to duplicate the rectangle with the transformation, until you cover the text.

When you're done, select all the rectangle layers, go to Layer > Merge Shapes, and rename the merged layer to Stripes.

Go to File > Save to save the changes made before you move on to the next step.

6. Create the Reflection and Bump Textures

Step 1

With the texture file still open, go to File > Save As, and save a copy of the file with the name Reflection.

Make sure to save this in your project's folder so that it's easier to locate later on.

Step 2

Change the text shape's color to #535353.

Step 3

Double-click the Stripes layer to apply a Pattern Overlay effect using the Satin Pattern.

Step 4

Save this file.

Step 5

Save the file as a copy with the name Bump.

Step 6

Change the text shape color to #1c1c1c, and save the changes.

So now you should have two files, one for the Reflection texture with the light gray color, and one for the Bump texture with the dark gray color.

7. Adjust the Material Settings

Step 1

Go back to the original 3D Scene document, and select the text's Front Inflation Material tab.

Click the Reflection folder icon and choose Load Texture, and then open the Reflection texture you created in the previous step.

Repeat that to load the Bump texture as well.

Step 2

As for the rest of the material settings, change the Specular color (in RGB) to (75, 55, 9), the Shine to 25, the Reflection to 70, and the Bump to 2.

Step 3

Select both the Bevel and the Back Inflation Material tabs for the text mesh, and then change the Shine to 25 and the Reflection to 70.

Step 7

You can use a simple gradient fill for the background, or add a Gaussian Blur to an image you have, or use any other texture you like.

After you add the background, take some time to adjust the different lights, move them around, and even move the meshes, until you get a result you like.

10. Render the Scene and Create a Copy

Step 1

When you're done, go to 3D > Render. The rendering might take a while, but you can stop it any time by pressing the Esc key.

Step 2

Once the rendering is done, right click the 3D Scene layer, and choose Convert to Smart Object.

Step 3

Duplicate the smart object layer, make it invisible by clicking the eye icon next to it, and then right-click the copy and choose Rasterize Layer.

11. Fix the Edges of the Jagged Stripes and Adjust the Coloring of the Text

Step 1

If you zoom in a little bit, you can see that some of the stripes have jagged edges. We'll fix those to get a more polished final result.

Step 2

Pick the Spot Healing Brush Tool, choose a slightly soft round brush tip, and then paint over the jagged areas to remove them.

It's important to paint small areas as precisely as possible, and not go over the whole line at once.

Step 3

You can also use the Stamp Tool when necessary, but the Spot Healing Brush Tool should do the job just fine.

Step 4

Just make sure to zoom in on the stripes you have, and fix any jagged edges, until you have nice, clean text.

Step 5

Click the Create new fill or adjustment layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel and choose Levels.

Step 6

Click the Clip to layer icon, and change the Shadows value to 3.

12. Add the Stars Texture

Step 1

Open the second image from the Deep Space 10K Backgrounds Vol2 images in Photoshop. Because these images are huge, you'll need to go to Image > Image Size, and set the Resolution to 72.

Duplicate that image on top of all the layers you have in the original document and rename its layer to Stars.

Right-click the Stars layer, and choose Convert to Smart Object, and then resize it as needed.

Change the Stars layer's Blend Mode to Screen and its Opacity to 50. Then duplicate it, and change the copy's Opacity to 30.

Step 2

With the copy Stars layer selected, go to Filter > Blur Gallery > Iris Blur. Click-drag the transition points to the center of the pin you have.

Step 3

Set the Blur value to 15, and then, under the Effects tab, change the Light Bokeh to 80%. This will create a nice bokeh effect. You can play around with the values to get different results.

Step 4

This is optional, but we're going to remove the original stars below the bokeh.

To do so, select the Stars layer and click the Add layer mask icon at the bottom of the Layers panel.

Then, pick the Eraser Tool, choose a soft round brush tip, and set the Foreground color to White. Select the mask thumbnail, and click to remove the light under each bokeh circle you have.

Step 5

Again, feel free to use any textures or effects you like. You can even change the text and stripe colors, change the camera view, change the lighting, etc. Just have fun with it and make it your own!

Congratulations! You're Done

In this tutorial, we created a piece of text and converted it into shapes, and then into 3D meshes.

We worked on the 3D meshes' settings, textures, and materials to create the main effect. Then we worked on the lighting, rendered the scene, and added some textures for the background and the bokeh effect.

Finally, we used a blur filter and a layer mask to enhance the final result.